Merchant Chippie Takeaway

Of all the places I can go for a takeaway a chip shop is virtually always at the bottom of my list. Maybe it’s because growing up in the 80s really all we ate as a take out treat was a chippie and now I find it boring, maybe it’s because my tastes have evolved, or maybe (probably) it’s because it almost always leaves me feeling yucky. I find that the greasy calorific treat is so rarely worth the bloated mingy feeling after wards.

If MrG decrees that a chippie is in order for dinner there are a couple of chip shops that I don’t mind too much, through gritted teeth and muttering ‘aye, a’right, if we have to fine!’. I don’t massively object to them because they do consistently good chips – a must, I think we can all agree for any chippie. Although I virtually never order a traditional chip shop order – no fish, puddings or pies for me. Instead I always get something like a pizza or chicken strips.

I say all this, but I never give up hope that one day I will find an amazing chippie that will change my feelings about chip shop food. So when I saw that the Merchant Chippie had been named as one of the top 50 chip shops in the country I thought I would give them a bash.

And so I packed some supplies and my passport and made the mammoth journey so far east I was practically in Edinburgh (:-P) just so I could bring you the 4th installment of my Carry Out, Carry On! takeaway review series.

Now as you have probably guessed Merchant Chippie is in fact in Merchant City…shocking I know! To be more specific you can find this small chippie at 155 High Street. So here are the basics – they don’t do home deliveries, they don’t accept phone orders, they are not on any kind of delivery app, and they only really do chip shop food. Hang on a wee second – it’s almost like I have travelled through time to the 90’s, and I kind of love it.

The menu at merchant chippie is a joy to behold. As well as traditional chip shop classics they also offer the best selection of seafood I have ever seen in a chippie – Scallops, calamari, mackerel, salmon, trout, scampi…you name it they have it. Unfortunately I had to pass on the seafood since MrG might actually expire if I bought fried fish into the car because of his allergies.

It didn’t matter anyway because I didn’t go for the fish….being an east coast girl there is one thing, and one thing only that I was interested in ordering – a white pudding. It always surprises me that white puds aren’t a bigger thing in Glasgow, they are a personal favourite of mine and are so delicious. They are a staple dish in every chippie menu in the east but somehow never made the move west….a fact which always bring me great sadness.

I was happy enough with the cost of our order. We were treating my nephew to a wee take out so in total we ordered – my white pudding supper, two half chicken suppers for the boys and onion rings and gravy to share. This came to a pretty reasonable £21.25, zero issues with the price.

Our wait was a reasonable 12 minutes, which given that the half chickens are always always cooked to order is about right.

Packaging wise, everything made the 10 minute journey back to the west end pretty well. Nothing was soggy or messy, and everything stayed pretty warm given that they travelled the whole length of the city centre.

Now for the most important part – the taste….it was pretty bloody fantastic. The chips were delicious, they were cooked perfectly for a chippie – soft on the inside but just crispy enough on the outside to offer a bit of bite. I would say the only downside was that the portion of chips wasn’t exactly as generous as you might expect from a chips shop.

The white pud was epic, as all white puds are. The batter was thin and crispy and the white pudding was soft and moreish…god I love a white pudding it is like stepping back into my childhood. When all I had to worry about was if Mrs Nicoll was going to ask me to read aloud in English class tomorrow, and which member of Take That I liked best (Howard, it was always howard..haha!). Sorry I digress, but wasn’t life so simple to be a teenager in the 90s…I miss it!

Anyway food! Yes! So the gravy was an excellent chip shop gravy – it was thick and meaty, well seasoned and was the perfect dipping sauce for my chips and white pud. The onion rings were awffy good too, I would say they were made fresh in house and they were cooked pretty dang well. The breadcrumb coating was mega crunchy and the onion was slippery and soft. An all round impressive onion ring.

So all in all I loved Merchant Chippie, it’s clearly incredibly popular judging by the steady stream of people who were in for some takeaway when we visited. The food is truly exceptionally good chip shop food. The menu is great, especially if you like seafood and because it is mostly cooked to order it travels really well. I will 100% definitely visit Merchant Chippie again, and will happily order virtually anything from the menu because it all sounds bloody delicious!